April 7 - Charles Burney (The Musical Birthday Series)

Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) is best remembered for his monumental History of Music, but his usefulness to us is in his detailed consideration of the music of his contemporaries as found in the last volume of his History and in two books of travel observations.

Travels with Charles

When old Doctor Burney

Wanted to learn he

Gladly crossed over the ocean.

In town and in duchy,

In village and such he

Listened with fervent devotion.

When his taste took a fancy

To motets or chants, he

He purchased the score for his collection.

He recorded the story

Of every new score he

Discovered with due circumspection.

At abbey and priory,

When hearing the choir, he

Penned an appropriate note.

Though it cost him a guinea

When he dined at his inn he

Had keyboardists at table d’hote.

Wherever he went, he

Met cognoscenti

And held perspicacious inquiries —

And on his return he

Wrote of his journey

With help from the musical diaries.